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As part of my prospecting plan, I am actively seeking and talking to landlords who self-manage their portfolios.
When asking why they self-manage, aside from the few who have had a poor experience with a managing agent in the past, the major reason is to save on fees.
Over the course of my next three blog entries, I will share with you some of the points I raise with these landlords, which they often haven’t considered, when presenting my case as to why they would be better off engaging me as their managing agent:
- Can the landlord bring themselves to evict a family or person who has fallen on hard times?
The nature of forming a direct relationship with a tenant means that sometimes what should be a commercial decision by the landlord can be clouded by emotion.
Evicting a tenant is hard to do, particularly if they have fallen on hard times.
But at the end of the day, the majority of my clients rely on the rent received to meet their mortgage obligations and a non-income producing property can put them at real financial risk.
For a property manager, evictions is another part of the job, which whilst unpleasant, is something that we have systemised and have the capacity to deal with without being directly and emotionally involved. - How would landlord go standing up in the Tribunal to argue a case?
Whilst tenancy legislation varies from state to state, one thing is constant – all tenancy tribunals are geared towards the consumer’s (tenant’s) favour and our job is to ensure that we have meticulously prepared our evidence in order to achieve a result.
I cannot count the number of times I have witnessed self-managing landlords at the tribunal over the past 15 years who have had their case dismissed simply because of a lack of evidence of complying paperwork.
Again, tribunal hearings is something we as property managers have systemised and our high rate of success is testament to the fact that we know what we are doing. - Does the landlord have full knowledge of not only the relevant tenancy legislation, but other legislation pertaining to rental properties?
With tenancy laws ever-changing and often complex, landlords can often leave themselves vulnerable and open to litigation if they are not kept up to date with the plethora of legislation within which we have to work.
Having access to our state’s real estate institutes and governing bodies mean that we are able to always keep abreast of changes, as well as structure our systems, policies and procedures accordingly.
This often relates back to some of the issues raised in point two, where if a matter is brought before the tenancy tribunal and the owner has failed in their obligations, they will often be left red-faced and out of pocket.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In my next two blogs I will highlight a few more points that self-managing landlords often do not consider and whilst the aim of presenting them this information isn’t to scare the landlord into submission, it is often heavily weighted enough that the landlord starts to see true value in what it is that a property manager can do for them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Skow
From humble beginnings as the office boy in a small independent agency when he finished high school, Dave Skow has forged a solid career in the real estate industry over the last 15 years.
Opening Wagga Property Management in January 2014, Dave has built a solid property management specialist agency experiencing net growth of over 300 properties in its first 18 months. Continuing to enjoy unprecedented growth for an independent, property-management-only agency, WPM was recently awarded as the best Property Management Agency in NSW at the Investors Choice Awards.
Dave is recognised as a leader in property management and business development, and he’s regularly featured in industry publications as well as presenting at events such as the BDM Academy Innovate conference.
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